DAPL costs still being tallied

Bills continue to come in for costs incurred by the Dakota Access Pipeline protest.

The state’s Emergency Commission has approved another $5 million in borrowing authority from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota to cover the costs. That puts the amount of borrowing authority at over $40 million.

Meanwhile, that commission has given its OK to receive $10 million in federal grant funds for the DAPL protest. That money will be used to pay back the Bank for loans.

"This is a nice start to pay back what the federal government did to us," said House Majority Leader Al Carlson (R-Fargo), a member of the Emergency Commission. "It's on a federal permit, on a federal piece of land."

But Carlson said the state still needs to keep up the pressure on the federal government.

"They owe us the rest of that money to pay off our debt," Carlson said. "That should not fall on the back of the North Dakota taxpayer."

The $10 million would come from the federal Justice Department. That money isn’t yet in-hand.